In which ricardienne rediscovers the wheel of fantasy fiction

[ricardienne]

One of the first epic "adult" fantasy series I read was Katherine Kurtz's Deryni trilogies. I confess to owning a rather embarrassing number of the novels, and I have, in fact, read every novel and just about every short story she has written. Her last few have been mind-bogglingly bad, but I am sure I will read the next one when it comes out, just for old time's sake.

The point of the reminiscence is this: if anyone has read any Kurtz, you may remember that at least once or twice a book, one or another of the deryni heroes gets on his soapbox to announce that magic is just another talent that can be used for good or evil, not inherently a bad thing & certainly not deserving of persecution and witch-hunts, etc. etc.

I'm fairly certain that this is a common trope in fantasy novels. I should have made this connection before, naturally, but here's Isocrates defending rhetoric:

τοῦ μὲν γὰρ γενέσθαι προέχοντα τῶν ἄλλων ἢ περὶ τοὺς λόγους ἢ περὶ τὰς πράξεις εἰκότως ἄν τις τὴν τύχην αἰτιάσαιτο, τοῦ δὲ καλῶς καὶ μετρίως κεχρῆσθαι τῇ φύσει δικαίως ἂν ἅπαντες τὸν τρόπον τὸν ἐμὸν ἐπαινέσειαν.

For one might logically charge Fortune with making me superior to others either in words or deeds, but everyone would justly praise my character for having used my nature nobly and moderately.
Antipodosis 36

I'm thinking about fantasy novels here: plausible AU 5th century Athens where sophists are teaching the alluring but alarming art of harnessing the magical power of words? (Oh wait...) Cato the Elder on that dubious Greekish magic thing: "a wizard is a good man skilled in magic"?

So many fantasy authors take the "words of power" approach to magic that there must be someone who has taken the rhetoric = magic notion and run with it, right?

Comments

[charlie-ego.livejournal.com]

I can't think of a rhetoric one exactly, but the two things that came to mind are Daniel Abraham's Long Price quartet and Lisa Goldstein's Summer King, Winter Fool, in both of which magic is mediated through poetry. (Both of these are fantasy worlds rather than AU.)

Abraham's books are rather more, I think, in the spirit of what you are talking about... the "poets" work by minutely describing these, hmm, spirits? magical beings? andats, they're called in the books, and they have to describe them and their functions very precisely. And what inevitably happens is that the way the poet feels about himself/the world works itself into the description, often making an andat that is... flawed? not precisely what the poet intended, anyway.

I really liked the books, and think they're worth checking out, anyway, although I liked the third and fourth much less well than the first and second.

Also, on an unrelated note, the Little One and I have started reading the Ruden Aeneid, and we're only on page 5 or so (we can only read about half a page or so at a time) but I really like it so far, anyway. (I think the Little One would prefer more pictures.)